VinsonMassif

My Angels frequently make holes in my sword leaves. They appear to take great delight in plucking the leaves off my dwarf sag. and java fern too.

Awesome tank T!

LMAO! Thanks for that. The pics of the tank are awesome

I think it's a cool idea. Have you ever seen a SW tank, that is non-reef, full of Caulerpa and fish? Or is that not practicable?

Good to hear you have more tanks. Those BNs get to 4-5" so they're sweet in there. Here are 3 sites I like to check fish profiles and stats: http://www.fishbase.org/search.php http://www.badmanstropicalfish.com/profile.html http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/fishindx.htm

Yes you do have too many fish in your tank. With overstocking a tank the fish become stressed because they are all in each others space. Betta's are slow and prone to be attacked/fins nipped off in a community tank with larger species, particularly cichlids. Personally I think you should take the Betta out and put it in its own tank. I would choose between the Keyhole or the Molly's seeing as the Mollies get to 6". Your clown loaches have to potential to get to >40cm if they are not stunted from being in a small tank, so imo either put them in a bigger tank or give them to someone who has one. What types of pleco's do you have in the tank? Some get HUGE. With Pleco's and Clown loaches being predominantly bottom dwellers the will be competing for same space. Pleco's can get quite territorial depending on what species you are keeping. IMO you should rethink your stocking or else you could have real problems in the near future. HTH

Good luck on sorting things out. Here is an interesting article on Pyrethrins and fish. http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/pyrethrins.pdf

I found a couple of interesting links. This is a page showing his tank designs: http://www.hemmy.net/2007/08/06/aquariu ... shi-amano/ This is his aqua design site: http://www.adana.co.jp/index_e.php

From what I have read (and seen an article about his tank) I believe Mr Amano is a scientist who writes in PFK magazine. If he is one in the same, he was the person who decribed the Amano Shrimp among other organisms.

i found this video of Mr. Amano feeding his Altum Angels. It is a wicked tank!

The only plants approximating "onion plants" for aquariums that I have come across are Aponogeton sp., or Crinum sp. I got Aponogeton off someone who was very generous, but have not seen it forsale. The only place I could find selling Crinum sp. was Cave's Tree Nursery (google them)

Cool

Just seive the water using a fish net, or stocking etc. Another way is to press a lettuce leaf flat with the palm of your hand and pour a cup of boiling water over the leaf, leave on the window sill for a day or so and feed the slimy green water to your fry.

I think that if you pour vinegar on a rock and the acetic acid makes the rock fizz, the rock has calcium carbonate in it and will buffer your water.

I put a bucket of aquarium water out in the sun, it turns green real quick. It is the bacterium Infusoria which you are feeding to your fry.

I have an AquaOne canister filter with coarse blue filter pad, and a slightly finer black filter pad. I would suggesting buying one of these from the lfs and cutting it down to fit. The lfs should sell individual replacement pads for various filters which are only a few dollars

I made sure I got dry leaves. Making sure they had no rot or mould on them. I put them in my tank and put a couple of stones on them. My fish had a field day eating the bugs which escaped. If you put them in boiling water you could skim off any bugs you didnt want to let the fish eat, and the leaves will soak up the hot water quickly.

Yeah I think silver birch would be great. They will probably break down quite quickly, maybe in 2-3 weeks. It will be a lot easier for you to get the leaves close to your house Maybe there is a neighbour who has an oak tree.

I used some native Puka leaves. They have a thick outer layer and break down slower than deciduous leaves. I have a few of these in my gardens at home. http://www.rnzih.org.nz/pages/Meryta-sinclairii.htm

IME leaf litter in your tank will reduce your pH some. As it breaks down it adds a lot of debris to the water, and blocks up your filter quickly. So just keep an eye on your pH. My loaches and Kuhli loved the leaf litter, but I was rinsing the sponges and changing the filter floss every 10 days to keep my water clear.

This thread has some info about lights http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/calcul ... 27516.html

I got a couple of nice peices at the high tide line on Karekare beach. Nice and worn, and sun bleached.

A couple of articles on breeding them. http://www3.sympatico.ca/tp.bridges/sturisom.htm http://www.gcas.org/articles/fish_royal_farlowella.html

I do like the spheres and the interconnected tanks. I agree with the hard cleaning statement. Can you imagine all the twisting and bending that would be involved with wiping the inside. It might be easier if you included a UV filter. I wonder how well the filter would circulate the water, and how well it would be oxygenated. Also if the top spheres would empty during water changes, or would remain with some water in them. Keeping the gravel clean would be somewhat of a challenge too.

What are the dimensions of your tank? What is the footprint? Keeping in mind that it grows to 8"/~200mm. Also what tank mates will it be with? I have mine in a planted tank with some large peices of wood.